It's a bit surreal when three quite different "areas" of your life and are all suddenly sitting around the same table together. This weekend has seen the LEAF family passing through Kunming on their way to Beijing, where Lesley is to be awarded the very prestigious, "Friend of China" award from the Chinese Vice Premier! A very just reward for the hard work and commitment she and her family have put into their 4+ years with VSO in China. Then Emily, who was my best friend in JiangCheng and helped me so much when I moved to Kunming is back from studying the UK, and it was great to see her today after over a year. And I was, of course, delighted to introduce them all to my girlfriend Ava (aka JiaJia) and then just sit back and see all my best friends getting to know each other! Ava and Lesley then went shoe shopping, while Ali looked after the kids and I played Scrabble with Emily. Such great timing to see them all before I head off to the UK.[Photo L to R: Emily, Lesley, Edi, Freda, Ava, Ali]

That's a really ncie award for their hard work. Is it Wen Jiabao giving them the award? I would like to meet him one day.

I'm sorry to hear about your phone and glasses. When staying in Kaifeng we went to a very famous dupling restaurant where I caught soem guy fiddling in my bag and then trying to steal alastairs shoes which were tied to the bag of his bag. The thief wasn't discreet about it at all as when caught , he pretended he was doing up the zip on my bag for me and gave me back my wallet talling me to be more careful and then proceeded to leave before being kicked out by the restaurants owner >.<